JimCourtney « Skype Journal

Jim Courtney moves on

JimCourtney 16 February 2009 4:42 am

At VON Canada 2005 I first met Stuart Henshall, the founder of Skype Journal; this Canadian VON event attracted bloggers from across North America. It was the only North American opportunity to hear Skype founder Nicklas Zennstrom personally while he was in legal limbo in the U.S. Later that year I was asked to write [...]

Skype for Windows 4.0 Gold: Blog Coverage

JimCourtney 6 February 2009 3:41 pm

Since its launch Tuesday, Skype for Windows 4.0 Gold has received some interesting coverage: David Pogue, New York Times: in addition to his column discussed here yesterday, he has produced an amusing video: Skype 4.0: The Cheapskate where a video starring Mr. Cheapskate shows a Skype video session with his daughter, Kim Cheapskate, obviously a [...]

David Pogue, New York Times: Video Chats Overcome Clunkiness

JimCourtney 5 February 2009 11:15 am

Columnist David Pogue in a New York Times article reviewing Skype 4.0 starts by going back to the AT&T video phone demonstrated at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and user experience from then. Not a lot of calls due to technical and psychological issues. He talks about why Skype has been so widely accepted [...]

Set Up and Make CalliFlower Conference Calls from Your iPhone

JimCourtney 4 February 2009 11:18 am

Over the past eighteen months iotum’s CalliFlower has evolved into a complete audio conference call service. While they still offer a basic free service, in January they launched a premium service that provides document sharing, local calling numbers in North America, Europe and Australia as well as a feature that allows administrators to set up, [...]

SILK: Skype’s New Audio Codec Sets New Performance Standards for Voice Conversations

JimCourtney 3 February 2009 2:42 pm

The most recent hotfix release of Skype for Windows 4 Beta 3 had one key new feature:

feature: Super Wideband audio codec

The associated Skype Garage post went on to say:

… Starting from this version we’ve included the new Super Wideband Audio codec. This is our second in-house built audio codec especially designed for [...]

Skype for Windows 4.0 Goes Gold; Improved UI, Audio and Video Performance

JimCourtney 3 February 2009 2:04 pm

Over the past eight months 1.2 million Skype users have participated in the Skype for Windows 4.0 beta program (stage 1, stage 2, stage 3). During this beta period, not only current user feedback was sought but also feedback from new users installing Skype for the first time. The goal was to provide a user [...]

A Partnership Is Worth Zilch When….

JimCourtney 24 January 2009 12:34 pm

… your partner fails to provide an obvious path to download and install your software.

In early July last year I wrote about the launch of Dell Video Chat, based on a newly announced agreement between Dell and SightSpeed to use SightSpeed’s video services. The bottom line was that Dell Video Chat would become available [...]

The Skype Restructuring: Global Products, Regional Markets

JimCourtney 23 January 2009 6:25 pm

Josh Silverman joined Skype as President early in the spring of 2008; since then he has been reviewing Skype’s opportunities and building a team of experienced executives who can bring to Skype the products, programs and team building expertise required to operate a business with a run rate of $600MM per year, 20% contribution margins [...]

Skype Everywhere: Coming Soon to IBM Lotus Live Engage

JimCourtney 22 January 2009 3:35 am

A year ago August IBM’s Lotus Sametime Division announced the acquisition of Skype Partner Webdialogs to obtain their widely respected Unyte Desktop Sharing collaboration technology. About four months later we learned, from Lou Guercia, Lotus SameTime’s Director of Operations and Strategy, more about Unyte’s integration into the Lotus SameTime offerings. In that post on Lou’s [...]

Skype Everywhere: Inner Pass Skype-Enables Business Document Management

JimCourtney 21 January 2009 5:06 pm

At CES 2009 COO Scott Durschlag spoke about “liquid communications” and “Skype Wherever, Whenever”. InnerPass has developed a business-class hosted document management system; they have been marketing it via private label to over 3000 businesses or project teams on several continents. Over the past year the InnerPass team has developed a Skype Extra application that [...]

What’s Wrong With This Picture, Eh?

JimCourtney 20 January 2009 2:42 am

The U.S. cell phone industry is asking its customers to only text during the inauguration ceremonies tomorrow. From the New York Times:

The largest cellphone carriers, fearful that a communicative citizenry will overwhelm their networks, have taken the unusual step of asking people to limit their phone calls and to delay sending photos. The carriers [...]

Skype COO Outlines Skype’s Software Guidelines

JimCourtney 17 January 2009 1:28 am

During our conversations with Skype COO Scott Durschlag last week at CES, Scott outlined Skype’ criteria for its software development going forward.

First was the emphasis on “liquid communications” through statements such as “Skype Whenever, Wherever”. Just as today you can pick up any PC or mobile platform and find all the Google Tools (Search, [...]

Skype at CES 2009, Part II: An Overview and Observations

JimCourtney 13 January 2009 6:37 pm

There’s a “new sheriff in town” when it come to running Skype; CES 2009 was a “coming out” event for the new executive team.

CES 2009 provided an opportunity to catch up personally with many of the vendors we have covered in Skype Journal including Skype, Truphone, SlingMedia, Philips and Research in Motion (BlackBerry). I [...]

Skype at CES 2009: Initial Steps Towards Liquid Communication

JimCourtney 9 January 2009 1:55 am

At a Skype’s CES 2009 press conference today recently appointed COO Scott Durschlag provided the first hints of a vision statement for Skype under its new executive team along with some initial software offerings that hint at the direction Skype is taking towards “liquid communications” or “Skype Whenever, Wherever”.

In leading up to the [...]

Skype for Windows 4.0 Beta 3 Hotfix Introduces New Audio Codec

JimCourtney 7 January 2009 9:27 pm

This morning Skype released a hotfix upgrade for Skype for Windows 4.0 beta 3 bringing in several new features but most significant is the introduction of a new “super wideband Audio codec; from the Skype Garage blog post linked above:

This is our second in-house built audio codec especially designed for calls over the internet [...]

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